Her Tycoon Lover

by Sandra Field

  ‘Connie?’

  ‘Lady Constance Cosgrove. Connie to her friends. You’ll adore her. She’s the friendliest natured woman you’ll ever meet.’ Pausing, she cast him a twinkling look. ‘She’ll adore you, too. She’s the most dreadful flirt. No handsome man is safe.’

  Shelby glanced into the rear-view mirror and frowned. The car which had been some way behind them appeared to be closing the gap rapidly. Thinking the driver wanted to pass, she slowed down to give him room, but he tucked in behind her with scarcely room to breathe. So she sped up, whereupon the other car did the same, keeping itself dangerously close.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ she asked sharply, and Gray glanced round. What he saw made him swear and turn back to her.

  ‘We need to get off the road. Look around for a drive…anything. Hurry!’ he urged her, glancing back again.

  Shelby’s heart leapt into her throat. A quick glance in the mirror showed the car looming large behind them. She didn’t have to ask who or what, she knew. It was him! Somehow he had followed them from the city and whatever he had in mind didn’t bode well. Trying not to panic, she searched for somewhere they might go to get away from their pursuer, but before she could do so there was an almighty crash from behind which jerked her backwards and forwards. The car swerved dangerously across the road and it was only with Gray’s help that they straightened up.

  Minutes later the man drove his car into their rear for a second time and again they fought to stay on the road. Shelby searched frantically for somewhere to pull off, but up ahead the road opened up with fields on either side.

  ‘What shall I do?’ she cried to Gray, who was watching the car swerve out and speed up alongside them.

  ‘Brace yourself!’ he shouted above the noise, just as the other car swerved violently, crashing into the side of them, sending them plunging off the road.

  The car bucked and leapt over deep ruts that jarred her spine. Up ahead, someone had been digging out a fallen tree, leaving an enormous hole in the ground, and they were heading straight for it. Braking like fury, she struggled with the wheel, but there had been rain recently and the earth had turned to mud. Unable to gain purchase, the car shot sideways into the hole with enough force for her head to slam into the window.

  A black hole opened up before her and she tumbled into it, knowing no more.

  Shelby stirred, eventually, a few days after the accident which had brought her to the hospital bed she lay in. Not that she knew it was a few days—or what kind of bed she was in to begin with. She wasn’t really aware of anything much, except that the world seemed a little fuzzy around the edges, and she hadn’t even opened her eyes yet.

  She accomplished this with surprising difficulty. It seemed her eyelids were carrying lead weights, and she couldn’t imagine why. That was her first inkling that something wasn’t quite right. The second followed fast on the heels of the first. Her nose was assailed by an unmistakable scent that meant only one thing—hospital.

  She was in hospital? What on earth was she doing there? The as yet only mildly alarming and rather more intriguing realisation had her automatically trying to check out her limbs for movement. The discovery that, firstly, she could barely move and, secondly, that even a small amount sent a shaft of pain through her head, caused her to desist immediately.

  Well, at least she knew what she was doing here, she mused wryly, taking short breaths to ease the pain, which thankfully began to fade away. She must have had a run in with something a great deal larger than herself—and come off the worst for it. However, her attempt to recall the event did nothing but make the headache increase. It seemed to have turned her thought processes to mush at the same time. Anyway, it took too much effort to think right now. She would reminisce later.

  What she could do was take a much more careful inventory of her injuries. Bracing herself for pain, she managed to raise her arms and legs some inches off the mattress, which reassured her that her body was intact, even if it was one big aching bruise.

  ‘It’s OK, you’re all in one piece,’ a familiar male voice declared from somewhere on her right, giving her an almighty shock, for she had believed herself to be alone. ‘Sadly, I can’t say the same for your car,’ the voice added dryly.

  ‘Gray?’ she queried faintly, turning her head in the direction she thought his voice emanated from, but he was just beyond her field of view. ‘What on earth are you doing here?’

  ‘Keeping an eye on you, of course,’ he came back with his usual irony, which she didn’t have the strength to make a riposte to right then.

  ‘Oh! When did you get back?’ By rights he should have been on the other side of the world.

  ‘Back?’ Gray countered somewhat cautiously, and she sighed.

  ‘You were in Sydney the last I heard,’ she reminded him a little testily, because her body hurt every time she moved. The next instant she heard a creaking of furniture as her companion stood up.

  ‘The Sydney business was cleared up quickly,’ he informed her evenly.

  Shelby loved the rich texture of his voice. Loved him, full stop. His looks matched his voice, and so far as she was concerned he was the sexiest thing on two legs. It was a pity he had proved to be such a louse. As ever, though, being close to him sent a tingle through her system. Or maybe that was just the painkillers wearing off.

  His presence partially explained, she struggled to recall something odd he had just said. ‘My car?’

  ‘The one you crashed in your attempt to avoid hitting a dog,’ Gray invented cautiously, checking out a theory.

  Shelby frowned. She didn’t remember crashing the car. The dog didn’t register either. ‘Did I hurt anyone?’ she croaked, and tried to swallow, but her mouth was as dry as a desert.

  ‘Only yourself,’ he informed her, stepping into sight. Her lack of contradiction was setting off alarm bells like crazy.

  Unaware of his concerns, Shelby had her own path to follow. Oh, yes, she thought for the umpteenth time, he was sexy all right. Black-haired and handsome as the devil. All she could actually see was his top half, but that was more than enough to impress her. He had the kind of chest that invited a woman to snuggle up close. Quite a hunk, in fact. Many a night she had fallen asleep imagining how it would feel snuggling up with him. The one time she had thought dreams would become reality, she had been rudely disillusioned. She had vowed never to forgive him for what he had done.

  ‘Thirsty?’ Gray asked, cutting through her bitter meanderings, and she nodded, wincing at the thump the action created.

  Gray winced in sympathy. ‘You had a lump the size of a goose egg on your head, but it’s going down,’ he told her as he reached for a button somewhere beyond her vision, but which raised the head of the bed and put her in a more comfortable sitting position. ‘Try some of this.’

  He was holding out a glass of water, and she allowed him to put it to her lips so that she could drink. It was warm but wonderfully refreshing. When she had had enough she pulled away, risking a faint smile of gratitude.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said, her voice sounding much more normal now. ‘Seriously, Gray, why are you here? I can imagine Dad hovering by my bedside, but not you.’ Unless her father had ordered him to be here. Now that sounded more like it, she thought waspishly.

  Gray momentarily froze in the act of replacing the glass on the bedside table. He was worried but dared not show it. If Shelby didn’t know why he was here, then she must have a memory problem. That being the case, he couldn’t blurt out that she was in danger. He had to be cautious and still try to work out what she did or didn’t know. The simplest way to do that was to talk about a supposed change in their relationship and take it from there.

  ‘Why not?’ he challenged casually, his eyes watching every flicker of emotion on her face. ‘I’ve always cared what happened to you.’

  She frowned in total surprise. ‘Since when?’ she queried sceptically. She knew exactly how much he didn’t care about her. Sluggish as her brain was, it
was working enough for her to wonder what he was up to now.

  Gray replaced the glass and slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans. ‘For a long time, as it happens, but more recently since we put aside our differences and developed a closer relationship,’ he explained, choosing his words with care.

  Shelby’s lips parted in a tiny gasp of surprise. ‘We have?’ She wondered if she was still dreaming for, much as she had always wanted more from him, she had learned the hard way that it was like reaching for the moon. To her further surprise, he nodded.

  ‘It’s why I’m here, waiting for you to wake up. I didn’t expect that when you did you wouldn’t remember about us.’

  She could feel her eyes grow as round as saucers. ‘Us?’ The word was little more than a shocked whisper. What was he saying? There had never been an ‘us’ for them. How could things have changed so suddenly, and how could she not remember it?

  Gray carefully picked up one of her hands and held it in his. ‘I know it’s a lot to take in, Red, but you and I are most definitely us.’

  ‘But we can’t be. I’d remember!’ she pointed out, staggered by the simple act of his taking her hand. Her mind was reeling. He just didn’t do that sort of thing. She had to be going crazy.

  His lips twitched, but his expression remained rueful. ‘You’d think so, but clearly you don’t. I think it must be due to the accident. You had a heck of a bang on the head.’

  Because it was the one thing she had always desperately wanted—loving him as she did—she knew it couldn’t be true. It had to be a lie. So she shook her head emphatically. ‘Oh, no, I don’t think so. This is just another rotten game you’ve decided to play on me. Well, I don’t think much of your timing. You and I an item? I’d sooner believe the earth was flat!’

  ‘I’d prove it to you in a way that would expel all your doubts, but you’re in no fit state to be kissed,’ he assured her, but Shelby shook her head.

  His certainty was countered by her own knowledge that he had played such a trick before. ‘Kissing me would prove nothing. Why should I believe you, when I know what lengths you can go to?’

  Gray sighed, his expression sombre. ‘I explained about that. True, your father came to me for help, but I said no. You see, I’d been waiting a long time for you. And when the opportunity arose to change the nature of our relationship, I took it. Unfortunately, Oscar returned and got the wrong end of the stick. You believed him.’

  Shelby listened to him in consternation. Oh, she remembered everything so clearly. Gray romancing her, her father telling her it had been at his request. Hurt, she had raged at Gray, because she had believed her father. Now Gray was telling her it had all been a mistake. He hadn’t agreed to help her father at all. She hadn’t given him a chance to explain. If that were true, then all the time she had spent hating him had been for nothing.

  Her heart lurched. Could she have been wrong? ‘I believed all this?’ she asked doubtfully.

  ‘After we’d discussed it for a while, yes,’ he confirmed, watching her carefully.

  One thing he said stuck in her mind. ‘You’ve been waiting for me?’ It was an incredible thing to believe, but if it were true…

  ‘Just about as long as for ever,’ he quipped, smiling faintly.

  A lump lodged in her throat and she had to swallow hard to shift it. ‘You’re serious? This isn’t just some, Let’s make a fool out of Shelby ploy?’

  ‘I am, and it’s not.’

  ‘You and I are…?’ Understandably, she wasn’t quite sure what term to use. Gray supplied one.

  ‘Involved.’

  Shelby took a steadying breath, eyes searching his for any hint of a lie. She knew what her heart wanted to believe. Dared she, though? Just on his word? Lord, how she wished she could remember him telling her all this before! She loved him, she should trust him, but she had been wrong before. Except, he was telling her she hadn’t been wrong. What did she do?

  ‘This is too incredible!’ she exclaimed. She didn’t know what to believe. How could she accept what he said at face value? And yet…what if it was completely true?

  The sensible thing was to keep an open mind. For now the only thing she could do was accept what he told her, be cautious and wait for her memory to return. The truth would come out then. So, she could take it on trust for now and let matters take their own course. And if it turned out he was lying…Well, she would deal with that then.

  ‘OK, I accept that what you’re telling me may be true. I’ll know one way or the other when my memory returns, so you’d better not be lying,’ she told him cautiously. She had to protect herself, for her heart was so very vulnerable to him. Please God, let it not be a terrible mistake! ‘Is there anything else I should know?’ she asked calmly, though the question set her heart thumping anxiously.

  ‘About us? Well, we’re still in the exploring stage, Red. Getting to know each other better,’ he said, flashing his roguish grin.

  Shelby almost howled. After wanting something for so long, it was just her luck that when it finally happened she couldn’t remember it! How could fate do this to her? Something must have shown on her face, for Gray reached out and brushed his knuckles gently over her cheek.

  ‘Don’t worry about it. Besides, there’s another side to look at. We can always start all over again,’ he teased gently, then sobered. ‘First things first. There are a few things I need to ask you. First and foremost, I take it you do remember your name?’

  She managed a faint smile. ‘If I can’t remember that either, I’m really in trouble. My name is Shelby Greer. How was that? Do I pass?’ Her spirit, which had been knocked for six by his revelation, was rallying.

  He returned her smile with a slightly ragged one. ‘Thankfully, yes. I admit to being worried. OK, we’ve established you know your name. What is the last thing you remember?’

  The last thing? She frowned, probing the mists. ‘I remember Dad telling me you’d gone to Australia. That was the last time I saw him.’

  Gray nodded, his suspicions well and truly confirmed. ‘That was over two months ago, Red. It seems to me that bump on the head has taken away the memory of several weeks of your life.’

  It was a shock, even though she had been half prepared for it. ‘That long?’

  Gray squeezed her hand bracingly. ‘Look at it this way, it could have been worse. You could have lost your memory completely.’ He lay her hand back on the covers gently. ‘Listen, sweetheart, I’m going to leave you alone for a time whilst I go and get a doctor to look at you. I must ring Oscar, too. In the meantime, try not to get too alarmed. I’m sure it must be scary, but try to stay calm. I won’t be long.’

  He went out, leaving her alone with her thoughts. They were, to put it mildly, in a state of confusion. OK, so she knew people often forgot things after an accident, but it had never happened to her before. It was alarming not being able to recall what had happened just a few days ago. She had no memory of the crash and, what was more important, she had no memory of them! It was so unfair!

  Which brought her back to them. Was she accepting the truth of it too quickly? Quite possibly, because she wanted it to be true. Because, for all his faults, she was sure Gray wouldn’t lie about this. And yet…She cut the thoughts off, knowing she was going round in circles. It was an impossible situation and the best thing she could do was what he said—remain calm.

  Gray, meanwhile, had asked one of the nurses to get hold of Shelby’s doctor, and was in the process of phoning her father. As soon as Oscar picked up the phone, he told him the news.

  ‘Shelby’s awake.’

  ‘Oh, thank God. Thank God!’ Oscar Greer exclaimed emotionally. ‘Is she all right?’

  ‘Physically, she has some painful bruising. The trouble is, she appears to have lost her memory of the last few weeks. She doesn’t know anything that’s been going on. What do you want me to do?’

  Her father’s response was immediate. ‘You can’t tell her, Gray. You know Shelby. She’ll figh
t it like she did before, and we don’t have time to win her round a second time. You’ve got to find a way to keep her safe without alarming her. Can you do that?’

  Gray grimaced, knowing he had already provided himself with the perfect means of doing so. ‘To test her memory, I told her the two of us were an item. She believes it to be true,’ he explained, wondering how that would go down with his boss. How Shelby would deal with it in the long term, he didn’t dare to contemplate. Time enough for dealing with that when he had to. He just wanted to keep her safe.

  Oscar didn’t even query it. ‘Excellent. You must keep her believing it, my boy. Do whatever you have to do to keep her out of harm’s way. Keep her safe for me, Gray.’

  ‘You have my word on that, Oscar. I’ll take her away to the country like we planned. You’d better pack some clothes for the pair of us and bring them down with you.’

  ‘Will do. Tell her I love her and that I’ll be there as soon as I can. How are you bearing up?’

  ‘Better now she’s awake,’ Gray admitted. ‘I’d better go. I told her I wouldn’t be long.’

  ‘I’ll let you go. Take care of yourself, Gray. Goodnight.’

  Gray said goodnight and hung up the phone. The die was cast. Not the way he had planned it, but he had long ago learned to take a situation as he found it and turn it to his advantage. There were risks involved, but again he was prepared to take them. Not with Shelby’s life, though. Priority number one was keeping her out of harm’s way. What happened after that—well, he was good at thinking on his feet. All might work out right yet.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  SHELBY was just beginning to think she had been abandoned when a doctor, complete with white coat and stethoscope, strode into the room. He sat himself down on the edge of the bed and smiled at her in a friendly way as he examined her with his eyes.

  ‘Awake at last, I see. How do you feel?’ he asked in that brisk way doctors had.

  ‘My body aches and my head hurts,’ she told him, though her gaze was on Gray, who now entered the room and took up a position by the window. Folding his arms across his chest, he smiled at her encouragingly and gave her a thumbs up.